Bushehr or Bushire is a city on the southwestern coast of Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, on the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

. It is the chief seaport of the country and the administrative centre of Bushehr province

Bushehr Province

Bushehr Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the south of the country, with a long coastline onto the Persian Gulf. Its center is Bandar-e-Bushehr, the provincial capital. The province has nine counties: Bushehr, Dashtestan, Dashti, Dayyer, Deylam, Jam, Kangan, Ganaveh and Tangestan...

.

History

Bushire was used as a base by the British Royal Navy in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, Bushehr became an important commercial port. It was occupied by British forces in 1856, during the Anglo-Persian War

Anglo-Persian War

The Anglo-Persian War lasted between November 1, 1856 and April 4, 1857, and was fought between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Persia . In the war, the British opposed an attempt by Persia to reacquire the city of Herat...

 of 1856–1857. Bushehr surrendered to the British on 9 December 1856. It was occupied again by the British in 1915, the second time due to German intrigue, most notably by Wilhelm Wassmuss

Wilhelm Wassmuss

Wilhelm Wassmuss was a German diplomat, also known as the "Wassmuss of Persia". He attempted to foment trouble for the British in the Persian Gulf in the First World War.- Birth and schooling :...

.

Postage stamps

Bushire has long been of interest to stamp collectors, since, during their 1915 occupation, the British issued postage stamps. The occupation lasted from 8 August to 16 October, when it was terminated by agreement with the Persian government. The first stamps issued were overprints on Persian stamps of 1911 reading "BUSHIRE / Under British / Occupation.", issued on 15 August. The same overprint was applied in September, to the series of Persian stamps issued in 1915. All of these overprints are uncommon, the cheapest costing US$25 and the rarer varieties ranging up to US$6,000. As might be expected, forgeries

Forgery

Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...

 have appeared.

Sources

• Stanley Gibbons: various catalogues
• Encyclopaedia of Postal History
• Rossiter, Stuart
  Stuart Rossiter
  Percival "Stuart" Bryce Rossiter was a renowned British philatelist and postal historian who wrote extensively about British postal history and postage stamps of British colonies in Africa and was actively involved in numerous philatelic institutions...
  
  & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986, p.331. ISBN 0356108627